Explain why every substance has a characteristic density, but no substance has a characteristic mass.
What is the density of water?
What is the mass of water?
Every substance has a characteristic density because it is a physical property that relates the mass of a substance to its volume. Density is defined as the mass of a substance divided by its volume, and it remains constant for a specific substance regardless of the sample size. For example, if you have 1 gram of a substance and it occupies 1 cubic centimeter of space, its density will be the same whether you have 1 gram or 100 grams of the same substance.
On the other hand, no substance has a characteristic mass because mass is an intrinsic property of matter and is independent of the size or amount of the substance. Mass is a measure of the total amount of material present in an object. For example, an apple will have the same mass whether it is whole or sliced into pieces. However, different substances can have different masses for the same volume or amount of material. For instance, if you compare equal volumes of iron and wood, the iron will have a higher mass due to its higher density.
To determine the characteristic density of a substance, you need to measure its mass and volume accurately. To measure the mass, you can use a balance or a scale. Place the substance on the balance and record the mass reading. To measure the volume, it depends on the shape of the substance. For regular-shaped objects, you can usually use a ruler to measure the dimensions and calculate the volume accordingly. For irregular-shaped objects, you can use methods like water displacement, where you measure the change in water volume when the substance is submerged, to determine its volume.
Once you have measured the mass and volume, you can calculate the density by dividing the mass by the volume. By repeating this process with different samples of the same substance, you will find that the density remains constant, illustrating the characteristic nature of density.